Republicans in Mississippi are unapologetically showing their racism this week. First, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith made a deplorable comment about happily attending a “public hanging” that she refuses to apologize for—a racist and insensitive remark that conveniently makes light of Mississippi’s terrible and long history of lynching black people. Then Gov. Phil Bryant went out of his way to defend Hyde-Smith for her comment, deflecting its harmful impact with a bizarre, inappropriate lie about abortion and black children.
According to Think Progress, Bryant said the following in a press conference:
“Absolutely we have been sensitive to race relations in this state,” said Bryant, who fielded questions for Hyde-Smith during a press conference and physically stood in front of her, serving both as a literal and metaphorical shield. “Today, I talked about the genocide of over 20 million African American children. See, in my heart, I am confused about where the outrage is at about 20 million African American children that have been aborted.”
So according to Bryant, what black people should actually be upset about is not lynching or actual white supremacy but instead about the millions upon millions of tragically aborted black babies that conservatives are so terribly concerned about. Spare us, Phil. To be clear, this is an outright lie. There is no data that suggests that this number is real. But it is a common myth among anti-choice activists who love to paint black women as a problem and the ultimate challenge to their pro-life movement.
What’s laughable is that these folks are pretending that they are so concerned about black life—even though they do nothing but make it hard for black people at every turn. They don’t care about black babies inside or outside of the womb and we truly know that since they often want to cut funding for needy families and Headstart programs and are the exact same people who don’t want to fund schools that are attended by poor black children. They hate affirmative action, they don’t want black women to have access to reproductive care or health care at all but somehow we are supposed to believe that they revere black babies. Yeah, okay. We aren’t buying it. Their policies and actions speak volumes and show us who they don’t actually care about.
Co-founder and executive director of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund, Laurie Bertram Roberts said outright what the rest of us were thinking—that Bryant’s statements are 100 percent racist and one big lie.
“No one from the anti-choice movement, almost never, frames white women — who have the most abortions in the country — as having committed genocide. It’s a specific charge that they only lodge at Black women. It’s a specific type of shaming and stigmatizing.”
As Think Progress notes, no one race makes up the majority of abortions but most abortion patients are white. That doesn’t mean anything (after all, it’s no one’s business who has an abortion and why) but it is data that clarifies that the conservative talking points about abortion are racist lies. And the transparency of Bryant’s racist dog whistle and go-to conspiracy theory on behalf of a white woman is one of the ways that white supremacy gets perpetuated in our society.
Mississippi is still the poorest state in the nation and has some of the worst inequality for its residents of all colors. Black folks are particularly at risk there and black children are more likely to live in poverty than other kids in the state. If Bryant actually wanted to express concern about living black children (and not black fetuses), he could talk about and explicitly work on policies that try to lift black kids and their families out of poverty and invests in their future. Instead, he reverts to one big lie and blame to detract from his fellow Republican’s racist remark.
In short, we aren’t buying it. And if he’s confused about the outrage, he could actually listen to black people about what they need instead of forcing his warped religious beliefs about abortion and black genocide on them. Hyde-Smith and Bryant have no business representing the state of Mississippi or its people.This kind of thinking and behavior by politicians belongs in 1958, not in 2018.